The Korean Mental Health Act has been radically reformed recently in order to improve psychiatric patients' human rights by regulating the compulsory admission process. However, the expert group brought up questions about difficulties in practice and incoherence in its philosophy before the Act was implemented. There are already discussions concerning the next revision of the Act. In such a situation, lessons can be learned from the experiences of other countries. Articles on psychiatric compulsory admission were comprehensively reviewed with the focus on legal criteria, and found that current trends worldwide include a move towards broad diagnostic criteria, use of capacity and treatability test, and treatment in the interest of health rather than safety. In addition, we introduce the Whittington scale, an assessment tool for the appropriateness of hospitalization used in the Connecticut Mental Health Center, US, as a reference for the similar procedure being implemented soon in Korea.
Connecticut ; Dangerous Behavior ; Hospitalization ; Human Rights ; Korea ; Mental Disorders ; Mental Health ; Philosophy

OBJECTIVES: There exists only a limited number of studies on the people's perception of criminality of people with mental illness. People's fear of the dangerousness of people with mental illness may have been exaggerated, and yet there are few studies exploring whether people's view of the crime rates of mentally ill people are correct or not. METHODS: A total of 363 college students participated in the present study. The present study first compared the official statistics of the crime rates of the mentally ill with the public perception. In addition, the rates of mentally ill offenders with previous convictions across crime types are compared with people's perception. RESULTS: Compared to the official crime statistics, people's estimates of crime rates of mentally ill offenders were grossly exaggerated across crime types, including fraud, assault, rape, robbery, theft, homicide, and arson. Furthermore, the rates of mentally ill offenders with previous convictions across all crime types on the official crime statistics were actually higher than people's estimates. CONCLUSION: The present findings reveal that people's view of the crime rates of mentally ill people is considerably distorted. There is an urgent need to clarify these prejudices in order to help people with mentally illness adjust to society and to prevent them from committing crime.
Crime* ; Criminals ; Dangerous Behavior ; Firesetting Behavior ; Fraud ; Homicide ; Humans ; Mentally Ill Persons ; Prejudice ; Rape ; Theft

No abstract available.
Alcohol Drinking/*epidemiology ; Alcoholism/*epidemiology ; *Dangerous Behavior ; Depressive Disorder/*epidemiology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales/*statistics & numerical data

This study aimed to identify clinical correlates of hazardous drinking in a large cohort of Korean patients with depression. We recruited a total of 402 depressed patients aged > 18 yr from the Clinical Research Center for Depression (CRESCEND) study in Korea. Patients' drinking habits were assessed using the Korean Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT-K). Psychometric scales, including the HAMD, HAMA, BPRS, CGI-S, SSI-Beck, SOFAS, and WHOQOL-BREF, were used to assess depression, anxiety, overall psychiatric symptoms, global severity, suicidal ideation, social functioning, and quality of life, respectively. We compared demographic and clinical features and psychometric scores between patients with and without hazardous drinking behavior after adjusting for the effects of age and sex. We then performed binary logistic regression analysis to identify independent correlates of hazardous drinking in the study population. Our results revealed that hazardous drinking was associated with current smoking status, history of attempted suicide, greater psychomotor retardation, suicidal ideation, weight loss, and lower hypochondriasis than non-hazardous drinking. The regression model also demonstrated that more frequent smoking, higher levels of suicidal ideation, and lower levels of hypochondriasis were independently correlates for hazardous drinking in depressed patients. In conclusion, depressed patients who are hazardous drinkers experience severer symptoms and a greater burden of illness than non-hazardous drinkers. In Korea, screening depressed patients for signs of hazardous drinking could help identify subjects who may benefit from comprehensive therapeutic approaches.
Adult ; Alcohol Drinking/*epidemiology ; Alcoholism/*epidemiology/psychology ; *Dangerous Behavior ; Depressive Disorder/*epidemiology/psychology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales/*statistics & numerical data ; Quality of Life ; Republic of Korea/epidemiology ; Suicidal Ideation

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the present study is to investigate the attitudes of people toward the dangerousness of the mentally ill. The study eventually aims to contribute to developing strategies for reducing prejudice against people with mental illness. METHODS: A total of 358 college students participated in the study. A 6-item questionnaire was administered to examine attitudes toward the dangerousness of the mentally ill, with Belief in a Just World Scale. Then, attitudes toward crime committed by patients with different types of mental illness (Schizophrenia, Depressive disorder, Bipolar disorder, Panic disorder, PTSD, Dementia, ADHD, and Mental Retardation) were assessed. RESULTS: People strongly believed that most of the crime by the mentally ill was committed on the spur of the moment, and that crime of the mentally ill had recently increased. Furthermore, there was a positive correlation between prejudice against the dangerousness of the mentally ill and just-world beliefs. In addition, patients with Schizophrenia were assessed to be the most dangerous out of 8 different types of mental illness. CONCLUSION: There exists considerable prejudices against the dangerousness of the mentally ill, especially those with schizophrenia. The present findings emphasize the urgent need to clarify misunderstandings regarding the dangerousness of the mentally ill.
Bipolar Disorder ; Crime ; Dangerous Behavior* ; Dementia ; Depressive Disorder ; Humans ; Mentally Ill Persons* ; Panic Disorder ; Prejudice ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Schizophrenia ; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic

OBJECTIVES: Nurses and social workers are key persons connecting patients with psychotic disorders to psychiatric treatment. This study investigated the attitude of college students majoring in nursing science and social welfare toward psychiatric medication and stigma toward the mentally ill. METHODS: The study enrolled 553 college students (369 nursing science, 184 social welfare). We administered a five-item questionnaire to assess attitude toward psychiatric medication and a 20-item scale to assess stigma (prejudice regarding the dangerousness of the mentally ill and discrimination against the mentally ill). Factors associated with attitude toward psychiatric medication were identified. In addition, the stigma scale scores were compared with each item on attitude toward psychiatric medication. RESULTS: In the multivariate analysis, students majoring in social welfare had a significantly poorer attitude toward psychiatric medication than those majoring in nursing science. Age, senior grade, and experience to contact the mentally ill were also significantly associated with a good attitude toward medication, while attending psychiatry lectures, having a religion, and gender were not significantly associated with attitude toward psychiatric medication, although they showed relationships in the univariate analyses. For three of the five items, a negative attitude toward psychiatric medication was significantly associated with higher scores on the prejudice and discrimination scales. CONCLUSION: Prejudice toward and discrimination against the mentally ill are closely associated with a negative attitude toward psychiatric medication. An anti-stigma campaign should be developed that includes education to promote knowledge about psychiatric medications and reduce the stigma against the mentally ill. In addition, our findings suggest that experience to contact the mentally ill might improve attitudes toward psychiatric medication.
Dangerous Behavior ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Education ; Humans ; Lectures ; Mentally Ill Persons ; Multivariate Analysis ; Nursing* ; Prejudice ; Psychotic Disorders ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Schizophrenia ; Social Welfare* ; Social Workers ; Weights and Measures

OBJECTIVE: To determine the incidence of traffic law violations among middle school students of Hunan province and to identify the influencing factors. METHODS: Stratified sampling and cluster sampling were used to randomly select students from 96 classes of 16 middle schools. Road traffic law violations were measured through recalling the occurrence of 5 common violations in the prior year. Most of influencing factors were collected by self-designed questionnaire except for family support function and parenting that were measured by the family assessment device (FAD) and the parenting locus of control scale (PLOC), respectively. Kruskal Wallis H test and multinomial logistic regression were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: The overall incidence rate of five common traffic law violations among middle school students in Hunan province fell between 16.6%-43.3%. Except for running against traffic light or not using pedestrian crossings (8.2%), students with the other 4 traffic law violations merely accounted for less 4%. The rates of students with 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 kinds of traffic law violations were 25.3%, 17.8%, 10.2%, 6.2% and 3.4%, respectively. Logistic regression showed that there were 3 factors (area, junior or senior high school, and single child or not), 5 factors (area, junior or senior high school, sex, single child or not, and class leader or not) and 6 factors (type of school, junior or senior high school, sex, class leader or not, family support function, and type of family education) significantly associating with the occurrence of 1, 2, and 3 or more traffic law violations, respectively. CONCLUSION Only a small proportion of students often or almost always break traffic law or break several traffic laws at the same time. Students with serious traffic law violations should be targeted by school safety education and intervention.
Accidents, Traffic ; prevention & control ; Adolescent ; Automobile Driving ; legislation & jurisprudence ; Dangerous Behavior ; Female ; Humans ; Law Enforcement ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Risk Factors ; Safety ; legislation & jurisprudence ; Sampling Studies ; Students ; psychology ; Surveys and Questionnaires

The concept of oriental medicine is according to the Yin-Yang Doctrine and the Five Elements theory which is based on oriental philosophy. Traditionally, doctors of oriental medicine have practiced by feeling pulses for diagnosis, acupuncturing, and prescribing herbal medicine for treatment. Nowadays, however, most oriental doctors are having hard time in managing their own clinics by progressive worsening of the medical environment, because the numbers of patients are absolutely decreasing, but the numbers of oriental clinics are relatively increasing. Therefore, they are intending to overcome the difficulties by enlarging their field of medical treatment in various aspects, and introducing treatment remedies including unreasonable or unproved methods, especially into the field of dermatology. Here we present a case of multiple scarring of the face following removal of pigmented nevi by acupuncture in an oriental clinic. We report this case to emphasize the necessity of understanding the current status of dermatologic treatments conducted in oriental clinics, and to inform the dangerousness and correct medical information to the public.
Acupuncture ; Cicatrix ; Dangerous Behavior ; Dermatology ; Herbal Medicine ; Humans ; Medicine, East Asian Traditional ; Nevus, Pigmented ; Philosophy ; Yin-Yang

We present the first report of fetal alcohol effect in a 12 year-old child in Korea. The mother had consumed 162 g of alcohol per week continuously during pregnancy. His first febrile seizure occurred before he was 1 year old, and became more frequent 2 years later. He started showing signs of right paraplegia when he was 3.5 years old and brain MRI revealed periventricular leucomalacia near the left ventricle. He was microcephalic and his growth was retarded. He was irritable, impatient, impulsive, and inattentive, and showed disinterest in school activities and aggressive and dangerous behavior. After the diagnosis of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder was made, psychopharmacological treatment and family support was initiated. After 10 months, he still had intermittent ideas of reference, although the aggressive behavior, inattentiveness, and impulsivity had improved. Using this case study, we stress the importance of maternal alcohol history in patients with these characteristics.
Brain ; Child ; Dangerous Behavior ; Heart Ventricles ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Korea ; Leukomalacia, Periventricular ; Mothers ; Paraplegia ; Pregnancy ; Seizures ; Seizures, Febrile

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome ; prevention & control ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System ; China ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Dangerous Behavior ; Female ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Sex Work ; Young Adult